Texas. Governor (1874-1876 : Coke)

Richard Coke, governor of Texas, held office from January 15, 1874 to December 1, 1876. Coke was born March 13, 1829 in Williamsburg, Virginia. He graduated from the College of William and Mary and began practicing law before moving to Waco, Texas in 1850. In 1859 he was a member of a commission which removed the Brazos Reservation Indians to the Indian Territory. After serving in the Secession Convention of 1861, Coke rose in the ranks of the Confederate Army from private to captain. In 1865 he was appointed district judge, and in 1866 was elected Supreme Court justice, but was removed by General Philip Sheridan in 1867 as an impediment to reconstruction.

In 1873, Coke won the governor's chair over E.J. Davis. Several tense days in January 1874 saw the state capitol turned into an armed camp, with two rival legislatures, as Davis refused to surrender his office. When President U.S. Grant would not support Davis' request for troops, Davis conceded and Coke was inaugurated. During Coke's term in office, he faced a state government which was in debt and without funds, an unprotected frontier, and problems with Indians and Mexican bandits. Coke reduced expenditures and made a new beginning of the public school system. He was re-elected in 1876 after the Constitution of 1876 had returned the governor's term of office to two years. Later the same year, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and so resigned the governorship on December 1, 1876. Coke served three terms in the Senate (1877-1895) and died in Waco on May 14, 1897.